21.8.12

THE INDIANS ARE COMING

Snooker
was invented in India in 1875. It was the rainy season and British army
officers were indoors mucking about with the rules of existing cue sports.

The
invention of snooker is credited to Colonel Neville Chamberlain, who was in
fact only 19 and not a colonel in 1875. With just a few minor tweaks here and there the rules he
instituted are still the rules by which the game is played today. They have
more than stood the test of time.

This
is not leading up to me making the old gag about snooker starting in an officer’s
mess and ending up in a total mess but a way of drawing attention to the
exploits this week of the professional circuit’s two Indian players, Pankaj
Advani and Aditya Mehta.

Advani
is a former world professional billiards champion, his main sport. Just 27, he
is much admired at home where billiards remains a popular sport.

Advani
has received many national honours, including the Khel Ratna, which I suppose
is a bit like the BBC Sports Personality of the Year but an award which
recognises that cue sports exist and are popular (although Steve Davis did win
SPOTY in 1988).

Mehta
is a double Asian Games medallist and has already this season appeared in the
final qualifying round of two ranking events.

He
has just won the Arjuna Award, another national accolade for sporting
achievement.

On
Sunday, both Advani and Mehta made back-to-back centuries in winning their
matches in the first qualifying round of the International Championship.

Advani
then made two more today in beating Alan McManus in the third qualifying round, where Mehta is playing Jimmy
White at the time of writing.

Advani
must beat Michael Holt tomorrow to qualify, which would be a significant
achievement.

India
has a proud cue sports history but has never really had a top player at snooker.

There
was O. B. Agrawal, who beat Stephen Hendry in his first ever match in the UK
Championship, Yasin Merchant and Geet Sethi, a former world billiards champion, a great bloke
and also a journalist for the Hindu.

It
was Geet who pretty much killed off the press tournament due to the fact that
he kept winning it.

He
was usually accompanied to tournaments by Michael Ferreira, another billiards
player who wrote for The Times of India.

Michael
was always great company but would usually spend a good ten minutes shouting at
the fax machine when the time came to send his copy home, the vagaries of
technology often defeating him.

Now,
India has Advani and Mehta: two young men starting to make strides on the other
side of the world.

I
don’t know either personally but on Twitter they come across as polite,
professional and dedicated and the results are starting to come.

There
was talk last year of a ranking event in India (there have been invitation
tournaments in the past).

This
will surely be made more likely if Advani and Mehta can continue their
encouraging progress.

Not forgetting Davis placed on four other occasions, and Alex Higgins and Stephen Hendry have come second.

I'd like to see snooker get more people on the podium, but sadly the public don't seem to want to vote for snooker players, or now the journalists who comprise the shortlist don't want to place snooker players on the shortlist of ten.

They were placed in the days when the BBC let the public vote. The production team have never given snooker the time it deserves (the once even broke the World Championship trophy), although Terry Griffiths did once play trick shots in a space recently vacated by Red Rum.

At the end of day, a two-hour show doesn't allow much time for any sport to be covered throughly, given the volume of sports there are.

I'd like snooker to get more time, it used to in the 1990s when the game was more popular in the UK. I recall Hendry and Higgins being interviewed one year.

I don't see how it could get more than ten minutes, not if I look at it objectively, but this year it may not get on at all. However, other sports will find their time diminished as it will Olympic dominated, which is perfectly understandable.

What annoys me is the written press who consistently ignore snooker players for the shortlist.

The BBC don't pick the shortlist, so don't see how they are dictating which of the ten you vote for. Yes, there are 'adverts' for each of the contenders but it is still the viewers choice.

The previous system had winners such as Paul Gascoigne, Greg Rusedski, and one year it was hijacked by people voting for the manager of Oxford United, Malcolm Shotton, so I think this system is probably better.

Although it is a BBC show, the event does have to feature the sport they don't have just as much.

I think snooker should get a little more, but even football probably doesn't get more than 15 minutes.

At the end of day, they had so much sport before as there was no competition, it isn't really a fair comparison. It is still a quality portfolio, but could do with more depth.